Within the Dark Forest
by QueenLavenderEyes
Summary: Slight AU ignoring Poster Boy. A race against time to save Rusty from entering the dark forest within...
1. Chapter 1

Within the Dark Forest

A laugh burst from across the room as Rusty sat in one of the many chairs in the murder room waiting for Sharon. He watched as the squad gathered around Provenza's desk, laughing about how ridiculous their suspect had been today.

To everyone else it probably looked like Sharon was just indulging her team but Rusty could tell that she thought the teams banter was funny as well.

Rusty just wished that he was in the mood to see the humor.

The day had been normal enough until he arrived at the police station after school today to find another letter waiting for him.

It was written in the same way as the others but this letter…..

Finally Sharon noticed that Rusty seemed to be lost in his own little world. She came over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder, the concern obvious on her face.

"Are you ok, Rusty? You've been very quiet today." Sharon gave him a small smile that would normally have made him feel better but today he couldn't help the pang of sadness it brought him.

"Yeah. I'm fine, Sharon. It's just been a long day and I'm kinda tired."

"Then let's go home so you can rest for school tomorrow."

At that, Sharon headed to get her purse and say goodbye to the squad.

Rusty didn't have the heart to tell her that there might not be a tomorrow for their family anymore.

After they got home Rusty decided to make dinner for Sharon.

Half an hour later they sat at the dinner table eating while Rusty kept the conversation going. Normally he would have been worried that Sharon would know that something was wrong but after the day she had she was too tired to notice much.

It didn't take long for the two of them to clean up after dinner but Rusty was reluctant to let Sharon go to her room.

But eventually she told him that it was time for bed and headed to her room. Rusty watched her go, feeling like he was about to cry.

"Goodnight, Sharon. Sleep well."

"Wake up, Rusty. It's time to get ready for school!" Sharon called through the door to Rusty as she headed to the kitchen.

But after ten minutes she headed back to Rusty's room. It didn't usually take him so long to get up anymore.

Knocking on the door, Sharon called to Rusty again but she still didn't hear anything from inside the room.

Looking at the door, Sharon knew that Rusty hated when she came in without his permission but the concern that he might be sick won over the desire to not cause problems.

As soon as Sharon opened the door and saw the letter she knew that the unthinkable had happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Within the Dark Forest Chapter 2**

The room was quiet except for Sharon's breathing.

At first Sharon couldn't understand what had happened but after a moment she processed what she was seeing.

An empty bed, still made from the day before.

Broken shards of glass on the floor.

A piece of cloth thrown down, more than likely the source of the sweet smell.

Blood.

There wasn't much blood on the floor or on any of the clothes strewn across the floor but it was enough to scare her.

It was a struggle for Sharon to not go into the room but she knew that going in could make it more difficult to find out what had happened.

Sharon knew that she should call someone so she headed to purse to get her cellphone.

It was a sign of how shaken that she was that it took Sharon almost two minutes before she remembered that her purse was on the table next to the door like always.

"Provenza? I need you to gather the team and come over to my apartment as quickly as possible."

Sharon's voice shook.

"Something's happened to Rusty."

An hour later the squad met up in the murder room to discuss what they had found.

Everyone tried to ignore the fact that Raydor's eyes were red from crying.

"The piece of cloth on the floor was the source of the smell, Captain. I sent it to be analyzed but it will take some time." Tao looked down, wishing that he had something more to say.

"Ok. What about the glass? Nothing seemed to be broken so where did it come from?" Flynn asked.

"We don't know yet. The kidnapper must have had something with him that broke when they were taking Rusty." Sykes chimed in from next to the white board.

Sanchez looked up from the report he was reading.

"Are we sure that he was kidnapped?"

When everyone looked at him in shock, he shook his head.

"When we came back to the office I searched around his study area to see to if anything was useful."

Sanchez stood up to hand something to Raydor but the brief look the team had was enough to tell what they were.

"Letters? There has to be a least twelve of the things." Flynn said.

"Rusty's been getting letters from same person as before and hiding it from us."

Raydor stated softly, flipping through the papers.

"But wouldn't these letters support the theory of Rusty getting kidnapped?" Buzz asked.

The team looked to Sharon but she seemed oblivious to everything but the papers in her hands.

Provenza finally answered Buzz.

"It could mean that. Or it could mean that he ran away to protect…"

The slamming of the door diverted everyone's attention before Provenza finished.

DDA Rios came storming into the room with Taylor following closely behind.

"What do we know about Rusty's disappearance? Is there anything we can use yet?"

But before anyone could answer Rios rounded on Raydor.

"I knew that it was a mistake to let him stay at your home. The witness should have been put into witness protection as soon as the first letter came! This could destroy my case!"

The pain in Raydor's eyes was obvious but Rios had turned away and went storming out the door.

Taylor shook his head as he looked at Sharon.

"Maybe she's right."

"But what if Rusty ran away? I know we don't want to think about it but it could still have happened."

Flynn stated as everyone glared at him.

Provenza stood up as he shook his head.

"With blood at the scene, a cloth that might have a knockout drug in it, and broken glass? No.

Rusty must have been taken by somebody and we need to find out who."

Sanchez grabbed his coat.

"I'll check with all my contacts to see if there's any word of him on the street."

"I could contact some friends of mine that work in other departments too." Sykes said.

"We'll check online to see if we can find anything."

Provenza waved them on as Tao and Buzz headed to their computers.

"Flynn, call any contact you have while I see if I can't get ahold of the FBI."

"But what if they don't cooperate?" Raydor asked as Provenza walks past her.

"Then I'll see if I can't get ahold of Fritz so he can push them to help. Captain, you should wait here in case anyone calls or in care Rusty gets away."

Sharon opens her mouth to protest but then she realizes that she wouldn't be of much help anyway.

She didn't know what thought bothered her more:

The idea that Rusty might have run away or that he could be hurt somewhere in the city and she couldn't seem to do a thing to help.


	3. Chapter 3

**Within the Dark Forest Chapter 3**

After almost a day of waiting Sharon felt like she was going to go insane.

With all the contacts the team had you would think that they would have heard something by now but no one seemed to know anything.

And the analysis of the scented cloth seemed to be taking forever even though Sharon knew that it always took time to finish.

Finally Sharon couldn't stand the waiting anymore.

Grabbing her purse from her office, Sharon headed towards the elevators.

If no one could tell her anything about Rusty then Sharon was going to search the city street by street until she found him herself.

But when she turned the corner she almost ran into Sanchez as he got off the elevator.

"Captain! Glad I caught you before you went home." Sanchez said, holding onto Sharon's arm to steady her.

"You heard something about Rusty? Did your contacts know anything?"

Sharon knew that her voice was betraying her but she couldn't seem to help asking.

"They might have. I had a talk with one of the undercover cops that work downtown and he heard something that might be useful. Apparently someone high up in the Crips has passed down an order that Rusty needed to worked over."

"Why would the Crips care about Rusty? He's not a witness in one of their cases."

"I wondered that myself so I took a look at the high level gang members that we know of. Most of them are clean but it turns out that one of them, a man named L.C. Washington, grew up near Stroh. We can't prove anything but I'd be willing to bet that the order came from him."

Sanchez took a deep breath, unsure of how the Captain would take the news.

But Raydor seemed deep in thought as she took in the information.

"Has your contact heard anything about someone kidnapping or…..killing Rusty yesterday?"

"No Ma'am. But I asked Tao and Buzz to look over the tapes from your apartment for members of the Crips. I was heading there now to help."

"…I think I'll join you."

It was no surprise to anyone when they found a Crip on the videos.

"According to the videos a gang member named Craig Cook had been wandering around the apartment building for almost a week. Cook has priors for assault, burglary, and murder so he would be capable of taking Rusty."

Sanchez said as the rest of the team listened.

Then he turned to Raydor.

"Captain, if this is the guy then there is a strong possibility…"

"…That Rusty is already dead. I knew as soon as I entered his room that there was a chance he was already dead. But until we have proof of that we are going to assume that Rusty is alive, understand?"

Sharon looked at each member of the team as they nodded their agreement.

"How are we going to work this Captain? We can't just accuse this guy of taking Rusty, can we?"

Sykes asked as Provenza stood up.

"Why don't we bring him in for questioning about the fact that he has been stalking Rusty for almost a week?" Provenza suggested.

"We'll bring him in as a witness since the video shows that he was in the area of the apartment all night. Then we can ask Mr. Cook about Rusty and why he was there. Hopefully he'll be able to tell us something that could lead us to Rusty."

Sharon nodded to Sykes and Sanchez.

As the two of them left Provenza comes over to Sharon.

Knowing the others might be able to hear him; Provenza leaned close to her and lowered his voice.

"Captain, when the suspect gets here it would more than like is a good idea for someone other than you to interview him. I know this is hard but you're going to have to let us take care of this."

Sharon sighed softly.

"I know. "I'm too close to the case to be objective. Do what you think is best for the case. Just…."

"We'll do everything we can to bring Rusty home. Mark my words, the boy will come home safely."

"I hope you're right. I'll just be in my office trying not to get out my gun."

With a small smile Sharon slipped away and entered her office.

Leaning against the door, Sharon tried not to think about how unlikely it was that they'd find Rusty alive.


	4. Chapter 4

Within the Dark Forest Chapter four

Sharon was starting to feel frantic with worry.

Almost three days had passed and yet they were no closer to finding Rusty. Every lead they had seemed to lead straight to a dead end.

But when the lab got back to them on the case it the news didn't seem to make any sense.

After the lab was done with the cloth the team had found in Rusty's room they determined that it was covered in perfume.

Needless to say everyone was highly confused by this fact since Rusty didn't need perfume. They couldn't come up with any reasons why the kidnapper would have brought it ether.

Taylor brought up the idea that Rusty ran away again but as usual everyone ignored him.

There was no way that Rusty would leave like that.

Finally after what seemed to forever Sanchez brought news about Rusty.

But after hearing the news no one could say whether it was good or bad.

"Captain, Some of the guys on the street that I've had watching for Rusty brought me some news. It seems that they saw someone fitting Rusty's description earlier today."

Sharon's face lit up but Sanchez wasn't through yet.

"It….seems he was seen entering the home of a known weapons dealer. One of the guys was close enough to hear them talking about a gun…."

It was then that Provenza spoke up.

"Then it can't be him. What would the kid need with a gun?"

"Sir, I showed them the picture of Rusty and they are almost positive that it was the same person."

Tao interrupted them.

"Maybe we should bring this guy in to talk and see what he has to say."

But Sharon shook her head.

"I doubt we'd get anything from him since he'd have to admit to dealing weapons first. Sanchez, I need you to get me everything you know about this guy. Also, please ask around the neighborhood to see if anyone saw Rusty leave."

Sykes, who had been combing through files, spoke up.

"Do we know where Rusty's street friends are? If he did run away he would need help to stay hidden."

"Good point. Sykes, you and Flynn can follow up on that angle." Sharon said.

Then she turned and went into her office.

She just couldn't understand.

No matter how hard she tried Sharon just couldn't understand why Rusty would leave or why he would need a gun.

Just thinking about it made Sharon's head hurt.

So it was not a surprise when Sharon heard a knock on her door and saw Provenza poke his head in.

With a nod she invited him in.

"The kid's going to be all right. We'll find him soon enough now that we know where to look."

"But what about the gun?" Sharon asked softly, hoping he could come up with a reason why Rusty would need a gun.

"Maybe he didn't buy the gun. And if he did it's not like Rusty would use it on anyone. He's a good kid."

Sharon just hoped Provenza was right.

Because Rusty was heading down a dark path straight into woods that would difficult to get out of.

_Rusty wondered what the squad was doing._

_It had only been a few days since he had left but Rusty found that he missed everyone terribly._

_It was the small things that really got to him._

_Sharon's smile._

_Provenza's laugh._

_Buzz harper on those stupid math problems._

_The list was endless._

_But Rusty knew that he would never get to see those things again._

_The thought hurt but if he was going to get the job done then Rusty just needed to accept it._

_He just hoped that Sharon could someday understand why he ran away and what he about to do…._


End file.
